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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Cheryl Hines, attend a Republican fundraiser in New York City, October 2024
Opinion: She needs to ditch her brain-wormed husband, take the money, her integrity, and a one-way flight to a country with functioning health care, writes John Casey.
About 17 years ago, back when Facebook was new and mildly intriguing, I begrudgingly joined and received a friend request from a guy I went to high school with. We weren’t close, barely acquaintances, really, but he lived in Los Angeles, was gay and out, and we bonded over that in a few brief messages.
He seemed happy, in love, and living his truth. Then, heartbreakingly, tragedy struck when his partner died by suicide, and not long after, he died too.
I wasn’t close enough to him to be filled with grief, but his death stuck with me nevertheless, because he seemed like he was doing so well. What I remember most was that his Facebook page was full of photos of him with Cheryl Hines.
They looked genuinely joyful, and that made me love her even more. I’d already adored her from Curb Your Enthusiasm, where she managed to play the perfect foil to Larry David’s grating chaos, but knowing she was a kind and loyal friend to my classmate made her more endearing.
And now, all these years later, that same Cheryl Hines feels almost unrecognizable. Because this week, she endured what might be the most uncomfortable book launch press tour in Hollywood history. It was a parade of public reckonings over her marriage to her husband, the brain-wormed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Related: "Pre-Gay" Kid Featured on Curb Your Enthusiasm
On The View, Hines found herself sparring with the hosts over her husband’s dangerous and bizarre health policies. It was less happy talk and more like an interrogation. They grilled her on whether she agreed with his anti-vaccine stances and all his wild-eyed conspiracy theories.
Watching that segment with her trying to seem like a loving wife to a nutcase while still having her senses about her was excruciating. She kept smiling, forced as it could be, and she tried deflecting, insisting she was “her own person,” but I’m sorry, it’s hard for me to reconcile that you can be Cheryl Hines without being corrupted by RFK Jr.? It sounds like fantasy.
I think The View's hosts were thinking the same way, like, Oh, come on, that’s B.S.!
Then came Tig Notaro. The talented comic, actress, and longtime friend revealed she’d “unfriended” Hines, literally and figuratively. Notaro, who is pretty no-nonsense, said she couldn’t square Hines’s marriage with her own values. In Hollywood, coming forward publicly was almost forcing Hines into a moral accountability.
As the old saying goes, or maybe it’s just something I thought up, when comedians start walking away, you know the curtain is falling.
Related: Tig Notaro reveals why she’s no longer friends with Cheryl Hines
And if that wasn’t enough, journalist Olivia Nuzzi is about to set off a literary bomb with her upcoming memoir, American Canto, which reportedly will include sexually charged texts from RFK Jr. and salacious details about his marriage to Hines.
This will undoubtedly prove that, try as she might, Hines can never escape the inexplicably loutish exploits of her erratic husband.
Meanwhile, Hines’s memoir, Unscripted, comes out November 11. Instead of the triumphant confessionalism that comes with book launches, Hines will likely stir up questions about why she continues to stand by her husband’s side.
Especially, when the world sees her tethered to a man so spectacularly untrue to science, truth, reason, logic and scruples.
However, prior to the book’s release, she did clear up that the worm only ate part of RFK Jr.’s brain, and she says, “So don’t worry.” Um, OK, but we are worried — I mean, really worried.
Liberal Hollywood, predictably, is turning cold to the unpredictability of Hines's marriage to the new right-wing extremist Kennedy scion. Reports say her old friends are drifting away, her circle shrinking. The same industry that once cheered her sunny optimism opposite Larry David now are talking behind her back with exclamations of “How could she?”
How indeed!
It’s hard not to see life imitating art here. On Curb Your Enthusiasm, Cheryl’s character eventually divorces Larry, weary of his constant offenses and social tone-deafness. Also, I’m sorry, I love Larry, and I’m not Brad Pitt, but I could never understand how Cheryl could be married to someone so, well, I’ll just say it, gross.
The divorce on the series just felt inevitable. And now, in real life, we’re watching the same woman live in a far worse version of that plotline, only instead of Larry David’s comic cynicism, she’s married to a man whose policies could genuinely harm millions.
And, Kennedy is just so grosser (I had no idea that was actually a word!).
And if I'm trying to rationalize Hines's thinking, there might be another reason she's sticking with the marriage. Many from our generation grew up with dreams of becoming a part of the esteemed Kennedy family. The luster of that dream has worn off as the generations have expanded and the Camelot generation has died off. Sen.Ted Kennedy's first wife, Joan, died last week, and she was the last of that vaunted generation.
But RFK Jr., even though he carries his iconic father's name, has mostly been ostracized by the Kennedy clan.
I’m no marriage expert, though I did write a book this year about couples who fought for marriage equality, but if I were giving advice, it’d be simple: Run, Cheryl, run as fast as you can while you can still save face.
Related: The Advocate's John Casey reflects on a decade of marriage equality in new book
Because when (not if) the next major public health crisis hits, and Kennedy’s reckless leadership cripples the nation’s response and makes everyone sick, he’ll be one of the most loathed men in America. Donald Trump will always hold the most despised, of course, but RFK Jr. will be right behind him, and Cheryl, by association, will be dragged into that same pit.
It’s all much too sad. The Cheryl I once saw smiling in my late friend’s Facebook photos, the one who seemed kind, compassionate, and accepting, deserves better than to be collateral damage in her husband’s delusions and conspiracies.
This week, more than any other since Kennedy was sworn in, felt like a harbinger. The shrugs, eye rolls, and polite questions are turning into enough is enough. The laughs have stopped. The walls are closing in.
Here’s what I think. She’s waiting for her memoir to climb the bestseller list next month before she makes her move. She’s going to ride all the controversy and gossip to cash in, then cut ties with the brain-worm husband.
If that’s the plan, she’ll take the money, her integrity, and a one-way flight to a country with smart, functioning health care.
Because at this point, the only thing that could save Cheryl Hines is to finally curb her enthusiasm for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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